Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

The Dog Squad

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Well here’s something that’s really disgusting.

Last night I signed into the Heart Like a Dog Pinterest account and realized I don’t have one freaking follower.  I’m following 53, but no-one is following me.

Don’t worry, you really aren’t missing much since I only have two boards and two pins.

I’m really hoping to change this.  So I added a follow me on Pinterest button to the blog.  You can find it in the subscribe box on the upper right side of the blog.

What’s that you say?

Yes, it just might be possible that I have an ulterior motive.

Have any of you signed up to attend the BlogPaws conference this May in Tyson’s Corner?

I bought my ticket immediately after the last conference, and I’m really looking forward learning a lot and of course, meeting many of you.

I did hear something slightly disturbing though.

I heard the cat people really bring it and the dog people sort of fell flat.  By this I mean, the cat people deck themselves out.  They wear clothing and jewelry that show their cat passion.

Dear cat friends, please don’t be upset by what you are about to read.

I’m hoping the dog folks can up their game this year.

Are you in?

If you’re going to BlogPaws, heck even if you aren’t, would you be willing to help the dog folks?

Here’s what I’m thinking.  If you are a dog person, would you be interested in coming up with a way for us to show we’re part of the Dog Squad?

I’m not talking about anything crazy like this: (I would never wear it, but I wouldn’t mind seeing someone else…hehehe)

Photo courtesy of Squidoo.com

Photo courtesy of Squidoo.com

 

I’m thinking something a bit more subtle.  Something along the lines of either shirts, or jewelry.

I started a Pinterest board called “Dog Squad” and I pinned a picture of a bracelet to it. Just to get the idea started.

If you’re interested in participating all you have to do is let me know you’re in.  If you’re really interested leave me your e-mail address in the comments and I will invite you to the board.  When your surfing the interwebs in the next couple of months and come across something that might work, you can pin it to the board.

Hopefully there will be lots of ideas to help the members of the Dog Squad give the cats a run for their money.  This doesn’t mean that I’m pitting the cat people against the dog people, it simply means I’m looking for ideas to show my passion for dogs.

Who’s in? Will you be part of the Dog Squad?

Proper Dog Greetings

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We’ve lived in our current house for almost five years.

About two years ago the neighbor’s daughter moved home with two kids and a dog.  Their yard is not fenced in and Gunner (their dog) is tied out when he needs to do his business.

He is not a chained dog, he is very much part of their family.  Whenever they are outside Gunner is out there with him, secured of course with a lead.

Sampson and Delilah know Gunner through the fence, Hubby did say a few weeks back Sampson and Gunner met on the street, but other than that one encounter, the dogs have had no real interaction.

A couple of months ago I ran into my neighbor in the woods at the top of the street. She, the boys and Gunner were sitting on top of a large boulder enjoying the day and a late afternoon snack.

The dogs were all eager to greet each other, but with Delilah’s snarkiness I was a bit leery, and I told her so.  She said Gunner was very chill, but the only time she had ever seem him aggressive was when other dogs  were around the children.   I said I’d rather wait until Hubby was there thank you very much.

Yesterday as Sampson and Delilah were having our walk we heard voices.  The dogs were going nuts and kept trying to figure out exactly where the voices were coming from.

I could tell they were in the field and there were children, so I decided the best approach was to bring the dogs down to the field and ask if they could greet everyone so we could enjoy the rest of our walk.

I leashed up both dogs and we headed into the field.

As we entered the field I saw our neighbor and she said, I just let Gunner loose.

I asked if he would be okay and she said yes, so I dropped both leashes.

Accompanying my neighbor was her sister and her sister’s dog, a 4 month old yellow lab named Sadie.

Sampson and Delilah rush forward, as did Gunner and Sadie.  The dogs all sniffed each other and then kind of did their own thing.

Now, this type of greeting might be great for when dogs are off-leash or meeting each other in the woods or field, but what is the proper way for dogs to greet when they are in a public place, a place like let’s just say…..Blogpaws?

I’m really considering bringing Sampson to Blogpaws next May, but his greeting skills are a concern to me.  He has a tendency to rush up to other dogs. Besides not wanting to be pulled across the floor on my face, I’d like to make sure he is properly behaved.

The probability is that if Sampson goes, Hubby will as well.  Hubby of course will not be attending the seminars and conferences, his job at this conference will be to handle Sampson, and Sampson does listen well to Hubby.

None-the-less I would still like Sampson and Delilah to learn proper greetings.

What are your thoughts on this?

Be The Dog

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Back in April, Pamela over at Something Wagging had a post titled, You Can’t Do That! Oh yeah? Watch Me.

In the post Pamela made the observation that there are so many people who tell us what we cannot do.  Pamela stated “Well I like surprises—people and animals that do awesome things because they don’t know they’re not expected to do them well.”

Then she posted a video of a St. Bernard doing agility.

I know.  Not normally a dog you would associate with that sport.

But here’s the kicker, the St. Bernard has no idea that the agility ring isn’t designed for large dogs, he just knows that it’s something he enjoys doing.  And he does it quite well I might add.

In the comments I noted in response to another blogger’s comment, “it’s much harder trying to do something others tell you, you can’t, then doing something when you just don’t know better.”

I ended the post with, “Be the St. Bernard.”

Pamela said it was a lovely mantra.

A couple of weeks ago Pamela had another post, Don’t Worry About Messing Up Your Hair, in which she noted dog’s aren’t self-conscious like humans are.

A dog doesn’t care what it looks like after rolling in that mud puddle, the dog just knows that the mud puddle looks fun.  After this post I noted perhaps the mantra should change from Be The St. Bernard to Be The Dog.

Dogs have a way of living in the moment, it doesn’t matter how their day went, if you come home and say want to go for a walk, the dog seizes the opportunity.

The dog has no idea of what it can’t do.  Can’t isn’t a word dogs understand.

After listening to today’s keynote speaker, Lena West via the live stream from BlogPaws 2012 Conference I’ve decided I need to take can’t out of my vocabulary.

There are a number of things I need to do if I want to take this blog to the next level.

If I want this blog to live up to its full potential, I need to seize opportunities.

I need to be the dog.

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